The Detective and Her Bachelor

Chapter 53

My phone was buzzing, the theme song for Mission Impossible blaring over and over. Notifications pinged across the screen, calls demanding attention, like the entire world was trying to yank my attention from the road as I barreled through the streets of Los Angeles under the evening lights.

After the twelfth missed call, I jammed the speaker phone button. 

"WHAT?!?" I snapped, anger seeping into my tone. The Los Angeles traffic was not helping my mood. 

"Just calling to give you a heads up that I am using you in an article," Em chirped in a singsong voice. 

"Fantastic," I said dryly. "So glad I answered the phone."

I could hear the smile in her voice. "Awwww you are so welcome!" she replied, unfazed by my sarcasm. "Figured I would do you the common curtesy of letting you know. The other journalists have probably been calling you like crazy, huh?" 

I pinched my nose, realization dawning. "Is that why my phone has been acting possessed?!? How'd they get my number?"

She snorted. "Oh please, you don't get a monopoly on detective work. You can find almost anything if you look hard enough. You'll probably be getting a lot of them for a while since the final episode aired tonight." 

"Awesome," I replied, speeding up to squeeze through an intersection as the light turned red.

"Smart move packing up and moving out of your house by the way. No one has been able to find you. Very clever." She sounded almost impressed. I fought a smile. Em for all of her faults, was very sharp, something I admired. 

"Well I can't hide forever thanks to the wonderful services of people like you," I muttered, attempting to sound angry. But it was hard.  

"Hey, you are welcome for letting you know." I could practically hear her eyes rolling. 

There was a beat of silence and then she sounded almost concerned. "Are... you okay with me writing about you?"

I let out a slow breath, glancing up at the dark sky. "Everyone else is. Why not you?" 

She seemed skeptical. "Really? You don't mind? That's... new."

"At least you've been useful. Go for it Emily—"

"Em," she corrected habitually. "Not hard, Delle. My name is two letters long." 

I laughed. "Technically it's nine letters if we include your last name." 

"Look at you doing math!" she replied over the clack of her keyboard, clearly working like mad to get her newest post up online. "So are you really not going to be a detective anymore?"

"How'd you—"

"You walked into the detective building with a letter in your hand. Not hard to connect the dots." 

Unbelievable. "Your talents are waisted as a gossip columnist. Your levels of creepy stalking would be very welcomed in the detective agency. I hear their's a job opening there." 

The loud clicking across her keyboard paused for a beat, as if she was considering, tempted by the idea. "I'll think about it." Then the click clack of the keyboard was back. "What are you going to do next Delle?" 

I let out a long breathe. My time at the cabin had been good for me... if we forget that one of my main reasons for going was to hide from Andrew. I had gotten to make lists of all of the things I liked to do. Do research on what kind of jobs I may be good at. And as I began to narrow down what I wanted to do, I had received a very interesting call...